Council representatives met in Horsham earlier this month with staff from GWMWater and the Country Fire Authority, to discuss implications for council and the shire as a whole in regard to the closure of the channel system when the Wimmera Mallee Pipeline is completed.

General Manager Customer Services, Jim Nolan, reported that the installation of new fire hydrants and storage tanks along the pipeline route in the shire had been a major issue.

He said with the cessation of channel flows, the new system would provide fire hydrants on all pipelines. The design has been to generally have a hydrant or tank outlet at about five kilometre intervals, to ensure a good coverage of the serviced area.

Mr Nolan said for Northern Grampians Shire, this would involve 21 hydrants and 42 tanks.

``The original estimate provided was that the infrastructure works would cost around $115,000. Now the estimate is between $300,000 and $400,000. The final cost will only be known after every site is individually assessed,'' he said.

Mr Nolan said the State Government had allocated $115,000 for the works, but this was only payable after council agreed to sign a legal agreement that requires it to pay for all installation and maintenance costs.

Since discussions had taken place with GWMWater, council officers had moved to identify priority locations for between 10 and 15 tank sites using available trust funds.

This would at least give some additional fire security to the affected areas of the shire.

It was recommended that the priority installations be proceeded with and that council agree to signing an amended agreement for the provision of the hydrants and tanks, only to the extent of the available GWMWater trust funds allocated and as long as council is not committed to the installation of all works at its cost.

Council will also lobby the CFA, State and Federal Governments to see if additional funds could be made available for the remaining parts of the project.